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Yo-yo pros string along onlookers

Hank Freeman 2011 World Yo-Yo champion, Saturday demonstrates string tricks with two yo-yos at The Toy Store, 5300 S.W. 21st. Four members of the Duncan Crew USA demonstrated yo-yo techniques and tricks.

Yo-yo experts from Hawaii, Ohio, Missouri and Maryland dropped by The Toy Store on Saturday afternoon to give a short performance and help adults and children brush up on yo-yo skills.

“We travel around the world and demonstrate how awesome the yo-yo is,” said Takeshi Kamisato, of Hawaii. “I started playing with the yo-yo 10 years ago, and I became a professional seven years ago.”

Kamisato was one of four members of the Duncan Crew USA who spent three hours at The Toy Store, 5300 S.W. 21st, showing a small gathering how to perform tricks. The crew demonstrated five techniques: string tricks, classic, string tricks with two yo-yos, off-string and counterweight.

There are 60 Duncan professionals worldwide who tour.

Hank Freeman, the current world champion, and Chris Neff, the current spin top world champion, were part of the crew who visited Topeka.

Freeman is the 2011 World Yo-Yo champion, and he also was the 2009 and 2010 USA National Yo-Yo champion.

Topekan Jacob Deffenbaugh, also known as “The Yo-Yo Man,” talked with Duncan Crew members and showed off some of his own skills. Deffenbaugh began yo-yoing in 1999.

“I didn’t have a lot of friends in school,” he said. “This was a solitary activity. Now, it’s a friend-making icebreaker.”

Duncan Toys, which was founded by Donald F. Duncan, has sold billions of yo-yos and spin tops worldwide since its inception in 1929. Duncan has been a division of Flambeau since 1967.